In the field of television broadcasting, electronic program guides (EPGs) are software programs that reside inside cable TV and satellite set-top boxes, and inside TVs. An EPG displays a user interface that allows the viewer to interactively browse and search through listings of television programs which will be aired on a specific list of television channels on a specific range of dates. An EPG typically employs a program database, which describes, for each Program, the specific time it will air and the program source or channel it will air on. Program databases are generally assembled via a manual and/or automated process of collecting the program information from each television broadcaster.
Recently, the Internet has become a popular source of audiovisual content. Content Publishers such as television broadcasters, movie studios, web-only video publishers, and other publishers offer content often in a video format for download and/or streaming delivery from their web sites and/or FTP sites. Content Aggregators discover, index, and republish or provide URL links to the available audiovisual content, typically video content, from multiple Content Publishers, on their web sites. A Content Aggregator typically uses an automated process to retrieve each Content Publisher's list of available audiovisual content (e.g., video content). Such a list typically comprises the metadata for each audiovisual content item such as its series and episode titles, air date, season and episode numbers, provider, duration, rating, a brief description and the URL or other identifier to indicate where the file containing the content can be downloaded from and/or the streaming can be requested from. A Content Aggregator will typically store this metadata information in a visual content item metadata database.
A Content Aggregator's web site may provide the site visitor with multiple methods to find visual content items, (e.g., videos) including an item search feature, browse by title, browse by category/genre, browse by publisher, etc. Another method is to provide a list of videos organized by the specific date on which that television program or movie was first aired or re-aired. This list may consist of a list of videos organized by day of the week, or a two-dimensional EPG-like grid or table using Channels and Times as its two axis.
The challenge in implementing this type of time-based Guide is that although a program database typically indicates which programs were aired on a specific date, it does not provide information regarding the availability of visual content items (e.g., videos) for download or streaming. Conversely, although a visual content item metadata database typically indicates a visual content item's availability for download or streaming, it may omit or include inaccurate air-date or program source information.
These and other features and advantages will be apparent from the following description of illustrative embodiments in conjunction with the drawings.